Transcript

00:00:00

>>

SOUND] P

esident Trump in a series of Thursday morning tweets, changing his story about the $130,000 payment to porn star, Stormy Daniels. Saying now that the non-disclosure agreement drawn up by his long-time personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was aimed at stopping the adult film actress from making, quote, false and extortionist accusations about an affair.

00:00:24

That contradicts previous claims made by Trump, including a flat denial he knew about the payment.>> Mr. President, did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?>> No>> Trump stressed in the tweets that Cohen did not use presidential campaign funds to pay Daniels. Saying quote, money from the campaign, or campaign contributions played no roll in this transaction.

00:00:47

That claim comes after Rudy Giuliani, now a member of Trump's legal team, said in an interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity that Trump reimbursed Cohen for the payment made to Daniels before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence. But that it did not violate campaign finance laws because it was not drawn from Trump campaign funds.

00:01:07

>> I think having something to do with paying some Stormy Daniels woman, 130,000, I mean which is gonna turn out to be perfectly legal. That money was not campaign money. Sorry, I'm giving you a fact now that you don't know. It's not campaign money. No campaign finance violation.

00:01:28

>> They funneled it to a law firm.>> Funneled to the law firm, and the President repaid it.>> Cohen has said he paid Daniels who's real name is Stephanie Clifford, out of his own pocket and was not reimbursed by Trump. Daniels has sued Trump and Cohen to be released from the non-disclosure agreement, saying it was invalid because Trump never signed it.

00:01:47

She has also sued Trump for defamation. Meanwhile, Cohen is under criminal investigation. Both he and the federal government have indicated some documents seized in an FBI raid of his home office and hotel room last month. Relate to the hush money payment at the heart of the lawsuit with Daniels.

00:02:05

Cohen last week said he would invoke the fifth amendment and refuse to answer questions in the lawsuit.